Pakistan called key to Afghan insurgency

Safe havens must be shut, general says

The outgoing U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan said the insurgency there will last for years unless Pakistan shuts down safe havens where militants train and recruit.

Gen. Dan McNeill also blamed new peace agreements in Pakistan's tribal areas for a spike in violence in eastern Afghanistan, where U.S. forces operate along the volatile border.

"If there are going to be sanctuaries where these terrorists, these extremists, these insurgents can train, can recruit, can regenerate, there's still going to be a challenge there," McNeill said.

NATO has said there was a 50 percent spike in violence in eastern Afghanistan in April when compared with 2007.

"We've also monitored and reported in the past what happens when there are so-called peace negotiations with these terrorists and extremists inside those sanctuaries," McNeill said. "And when there have been (negotiations), there has been a spike in the untoward events on our side of the border."

McNeill, 61, a four-star general from North Carolina who has fought in most American conflicts since Vietnam, will step down next week as commanding officer of the 40-nation International Security Assistance Force. He will be replaced by U.S. Gen. David McKiernan, the commanding general of the U.S. Army in Europe.

McKiernan will inherit a greatly expanded force compared to the one McNeill took command of in February 2007, when it had 36,000 troops. Today it has 51,000.

There is also a record number of U.S. forces in the country - 33,000, including 2,400 Marines who arrived this spring to battle insurgents in the south, where the international force has not had enough troops. McNeill said the United States will probably send more troops to the south next year.

Violence and the drug trade have also spiked on McNeill's watch. Insurgents last year set off a record number of suicide bombs - more than 140. More than 8,000 people, mostly militants, died in violence, according to U.N. analysts. Former military officers have warned that the international effort is in danger of failing.

Also Friday, Taliban militants captured a remote town from the Afghan government overnight, taking captive the district's government leader and eight police, militants and officials said Friday.

Afghan troops were heading to the district of Roshidan in Ghazni province, 65 miles southwest of Kabul, to retake the town.